Osaka Prefectural Sayamaike Museum is one of Tadao And0's masterpieces. Located in Osaka, Japan, it's designed to introduce the history of water control, irrigation, and reclamation. Built a few meters from Sayamaike Lake, the space follows Ando's aim to promote simplicity and minimalism while playing with geometry, light, and space.
The complex is composed of a large rectangular box and a small cuboid surrounded by rectangular water sources. The Museum took Ando 4 years of design plus another 3 of construction.
One of Ando's main beliefs is that we should take good care of the architecture that exists in the built environment. So as in most of his works, the museum is built in harmony with the surroundings. Water is clearly the main design element used for Osaka Prefectural Sayamaike Museum.
Tadao Ando once said about his work: “The buildings I have created put the visitors’ souls at ease and allowed for a better connection to nature as well as light, water, and wind.” Osaka Prefectral Sayamaike Museum is one of the best examples of this, since the design gets reflected in water once every hour for 5 minutes presenting a quiet and melodic atmosphere with clear geometric spaces. An ode to raw minimalism, perfectly connecting the rhythm of the materials with the different spaces.
About the architect
Tadao Ando, born in Osaka in 1941, is definitely one of Japan's most renowned and prestigious architects. He's known for manipulating space, light, and wind to create captivating atmospheres through the material, shadows, and spatial design. His signature material is reinforced concrete, which he refers to as “smooth-as-silk”. Throughout his practice he managed to dominate this material, to the point that he is able to generate patterns of light and wind in all his works. A self taught architect, Ando won The Pritzker Architecture Prize in 1995 and UIA Gold Medal in 2005.
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